ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that party identification does not mean much—particularly in the current era, when the proportion voting a straight party ticket has declined sharply. Party identification, for many, is simply a traditional label, influenced by family, regional, ethnoreligious, or other group affiliations such as union membership. The social issue shows up mostly in the changes in the Republican vote from 1976 to 1980. The 1980 election is the third presidential election out of the last four won by the Republican nominee. In the 1980 presidential election itself, class factors once again became less important, while Anderson's support dropped off rapidly, following a pattern typical of third-party candidacies in the United States. The record of the first eight months of the Reagan administration is different from that of the previous GOP incumbencies. Representing the laissez-faire libertarian wing of the party, Reagan has successfully pressed for cuts in a large number of domestic, welfare oriented programs.
